カタールで警備員「強制労働」　国際人権団体、Ｗ杯前に調査要求

【ドーハＡＦＰ＝時事】国際人権団体アムネスティ・インターナショナルは６日、２０２２年サッカーＷ杯大会の開催国カタールでは警備員が「強制労働」の状態を強いられ、一日の休みもないまま数か月、ときには数年にわたり働かされていると報告書で指摘し、大会開幕前に調査を行うよう求めた。（写真は２０２２年サッカーＷ杯カタール大会欧州予選グループＪ、ドイツ対アイスランド。試合前にアルファベットが書かれたシャツに着替え、抗議するドイツの選手）
　カタールでは、アフリカやアジアから渡ってきた大勢の移民労働者が、事務所や工場、建設現場の警備員として低賃金で働いている。中東初開催となるＷ杯が１１月２１日に開幕するまでに、さらに数千人が動員される見通しとなっている。
　アムネスティによれば、３４人の現・元警備員が「１日１２時間労働を週７日こなすのが日常的で、数か月、あるいは数年にわたり休みなしで働くことはざらだと説明した」。あるバングラデシュ人の男性は、３年間一日も休日をもらえなかったと話したという。
　また、週１日の法定休を取得した人は賃金を削減されることも多く、代わりの人を用意せずにトイレ休憩をとったり、病欠したり、仕事着の着方が「間違って」いたりした場合も減給になったという。
　気温５０度に達する夏に屋外労働を強いられたことに対する不満も取り上げられた。警備員の多くを占めるウガンダやケニア出身の労働者は、猛暑での仕事を任されることが比較的多く、特にアラビア語を話せる労働者よりも賃金が低いと指摘された。
　以前から批判を受けているカタールは、すでに最低賃金を導入し、猛暑下で認められる労働時間を短縮。労働者が転職や出国をする際には雇用主の許可が必要になるシステムも一部廃止している。だがアムネスティは、雇用主と移民労働者の間にはいまだ「巨大なパワーバランスの不均衡」があり、警備業界に対する関心が低いと主張した。
　カタールでは労働組合の結成が禁止されている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/04/08-14:16）

The UN labour agency joined Amnesty International Thursday in calling on World Cup hosts Qatar to protect thousands of security guards who a report said were victims of forced labour.
Guards posted at World Cup stadiums, ministries and offices often had to work months, sometimes years, without a day off, Amnesty said in a study.
Qatar, where the World Cup starts on November 21, insists it has cracked down on hundreds of unscrupulous companies, but acknowledged that abuses still take place.
An army of migrant labourers from Africa and Asia work as poorly paid guards across the tiny emirate whose energy wealth has fuelled a construction boom. Thousands more are being taken on for the World Cup.
Amnesty said 34 current or former guards it interviewed described routinely working 12 hours a day, seven days a week -- often for months or even years on end without a day off. One Bangladeshi guard said he did not get a day off for three years.
Physically and emotionally exhausted, workers kept reporting for duty under threat of financial penalties -- or worse, contract termination or deportation, said Stephen Cockburn, an Amnesty researcher.
Those who took a legal weekly day off often had wages cut, Amnesty added. Guards also lost money for taking a toilet break without getting cover, taking a day off sick or just wearing their uniform improperly.
The men complained that they had to work outside in Qatar's notorious summer, when temperatures hit 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit).
Guards from Uganda and Kenya said they had more jobs in the heat and received lower wages than other nationalities.
- Work or deportation -
Following previous criticism, Qatar in 2017 introduced a minimum wage, cut the hours that can be worked in heat and ended part of a system which forced migrant workers to seek employers' permission to change jobs or even leave the country.
But Amnesty said there is still a massive power imbalance between employers and migrant workers in Qatar, where trade unions are banned.
Qatar's laws on working time for security guards are clear but are too often violated, said Max Tunon, head of the UN's International Labour Organisation office in Doha.
Overtime must be voluntary, limited and paid at a higher rate in line with the law, he added.
In a veiled reference to World Cup organisers and other major Qatari enterprises, Tunon said: Clients contracting security companies should do their due diligence and monitor the treatment of guards, including their working hours and living conditions.
Qatar's World Cup Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy confirmed that three security companies involved in last year's Club World Cup and FIFA Arab Cup tournaments had been blacklisted from future projects.
The three were found to be in completely unacceptable breaches of its Workers Welfare Standards.
The committee said that in all, seven contractors had been blacklisted from its projects and more than 220 were on a watchlist. Fifty companies had been blocked by the labour ministry from World Cup projects.
The committee said there will always be contractors attempting to beat the system, regardless of stringent regulations or monitoring.
The labour ministry said cases of abuse were falling and the Amnesty report had ignored progress made in Qatar since it was awarded the World Cup in 2010. The reality is that no other country has come so far so quickly, but for some the pace of change will never be fast enough.